London!

I'm in London!  I met Jared at Heathrow Airport earlier today, and we've been bouncing around the city ever since.  Jared, as most of you already know, was one of my AmeriCorps teammates in 2004/2005, and we lived together in Northern Virginia after that for over three years.  It's so good to see a familiar face... and thank goodness he was there to assist with my luggage!  Have you heard that rule about not packing more than you can carry?  Well, I broke it.  LOL  Some of the Tube (Metro/Subway) stations don't have elevators or escalators, only stairs.  Jared and I had to switch suitcases because I can't lift mine up the stairs.  Ridiculous!  

Our first stop was our hotel, which is the Caswell Hotel in the Westminster neighborhood of London.  Here are a few pics:

View from our room

Teeny tiny bathroom

(size of a cruise ship bathroom)

Jared's body spans the width of our tiny room!

After getting settled in the hotel, we decided to walk around town to check things out.  Luckily, our hotel is in a really great location.  We're about a 10-15 minute walk from Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace.  Here are a few pictures from our random walk around town:

Westminster Abbey

Houses of Parliament

Jared and I at Parliament

Thames River (HA!)

Big Ben

Thames side of Parliament... and giant Jared

Jared and I at the London Eye

Trafalgar Square, at night

Streets of London at night

For dinner, we had fish 'n' chips.  Delicious!  Tomorrow, we're doing a city sightseeing hop-on, hop-off bus to see different parts of the city.  Brilliant!